Typically, a lawn mower is a horticultural mechanism for mowing lawns planted in a home's yard, playground, or the like. The lawn mower utilizes one or more revolving blades to cut vegetation, such as a grass surface, to an even height. The most common power source for lawn mowers is a small, typically one-cylinder internal combustion engine. Smaller mowers often lack any form of propulsion, requiring human power to move over a surface; walk-behind mowers are often, but necessarily, self-propelled, requiring a human only to walk behind and guide them. The walk-behind mower type is typically designed for mowing the lawn while directly pushing the lawn mower from behind.
Often, such laborious work of pushing, pulling, and manipulating the walk-behind lawn mower requires great physical exertion. This is especially difficult when operating the walk-behind lawn mower in the heat of the day. However, mowing the lawn later in the day, when the temperature is cooler, has disadvantages because it can be difficult to see the vegetation to determine if the user has already mowed a specific part of the lawn, or if there are any obstructions on the lawn, such as toys, rocks, and other items.
Specifically, the leading cause of lawnmower accidents is contact with its rotating blade. While the danger from this cause may seem obvious, it is an established fact that people will place their fingers near the blade, generally in an attempt to clear away a clump of grass or other undesired matter. Most of these accidents occur when the person reaches under the “skirt” of the mower, or reaches into the discharge chute. Another cause of accidents is the throwing of objects, such as small stones, by the blade. The tip of the blade can be moving as fast as 200 miles per hour, and can project small, hard objects as far as 50 feet. These objects can travel in any direction, depending on the angle at which the blade encounters them, and can injure nearby persons, including the operator. These problems are exacerbated in low-light conditions.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.